Air and boat searches are underway for the remains of a swimmer who was attacked by a shark off Fishoek beach in Cape Town on Tuesday. One woman said she watched the shark take an initial bite and then return.-----

Search for shark attack victimRafiq Wagiet | 1 Hour Ago

Air and boat searches are underway for the remains of a swimmer who was attacked by a shark off Fishoek beach in Cape Town on Tuesday.

Eyewitnesses and lifeguards saw the man being dragged under the surf.

One woman said she watched the shark take an initial bite and then return.

“It then swam off, turned around very quickly and took the remainder of the body on his return and then he came out of the water and went off. Immediately there was a sea of blood,” she explained.

Flags alerting bathers to possible shark activity in Fishoek were hoisted earlier in the day.

The city’s Gregg Oelofse said it was impossible to spot every shark.

“When is it safe to go in the water and when is it not and when do we start closing the beaches every time there’s a shark, which means the beaches would be closed through the summer months. So it’s a very difficult thing to do and obviously it’s a very sad thing when somebody loses their life.”

Beaches from Glencairn to Muizenberg will be closed until further notice after a man was attacked by a shark while swimming at Fish Hoek beach on Tuesday afternoon, the City of Cape Town said.

"All beaches from Glencairn to Muizenberg will remain closed until the city is satisfied that the conditions for the monitoring of sharks have improved," according to a statement issued on Wednesday.

"It is likely that visibility for shark spotting will improve later this afternoon. The public will be informed as soon as there are any changes to the current situation."

The man, 37-year-old Lloyd Skinner from Zimbabwe, was neck deep in the water when he was attacked around 3pm.

Witnesses spoke of seeing a fin and blood as he disappeared under the water.

The National Rescue Institute, the police and members of the public, armed with binoculars, have been searching for Skinner's body since the attack. So far only his swimming goggles have been found.

"I would be amazed if we found anything now," NSRI spokesperson Ian Klopper said.

"The shark attacked him three times. It didn't bite him and let him go. It came back and carried on eating."

Klopper said the NSRI had been receiving repeated reports of body parts being washed up on the beach, but none had been factual.

He said the NSRI was preparing to end its search on Wednesday afternoon.

Beachgoers at Fish Hoek were only able to walk ankle deep in the water as the white and black shark flags waved around the beach and temperatures soared above 30 degrees Celsius in the city.

"You've got to be stupid to get in the water right now," Fish Hoek resident Eddie Roth said.

"There are a lot of sharks around at the moment."

Roth, who paddles regularly around Fish Hoek, said he and wife Allison had seen a four-metre-long great white beyond the kelp near the rocks on the side of the beach on Wednesday morning.

"We heard a shark and we came to take a look. When we got to the beach we saw a four-metre great white swimming very close to the rocks. It was just beyond the kelp."

Roth said he would keep on paddling despite the attack.

"It's a risk every time you get in the water, but normally there's very little chance of being attacked by a shark."

The city meanwhile appealed to bathers to remain in shallow water, no deeper than the waist.

People should not swim alone, but rather stay in a group. All swimmers should make sure there is a friend or family member who can see them while they are in the water.

The city will conduct an extensive review of the attack.

"Once all the information has been compiled, it will be made available to the public", said Gregg Oelofse, the head of the city's environmental policy and strategy department.

"The City would like to extend its sincere condolences to the victim's family. As a City, we pride ourselves on having one of the most beautiful coastlines for everyone to enjoy and events like yesterday are particularly sad for Cape Town."

A howling southeaster wind had caused poor visibility at Fish Hoek and other beaches on Tuesday afternoon, when the attack took place.

Shark spotters from the city's Shark Spotting Programme, on duty at Fish Hoek beach at the time of the attack, had raised the black flag to warn the public of poor visibility. The last fatal shark attack in Cape Town was in 2005. Spotters have reported more than 570 shark sightings since November 2004.

There have been frequent sightings in the past month.

An alert was sent out on Sunday after eight sightings were recorded between Muizenberg and Kalk Bay on Friday and Saturday. - Sapa

Have WE turned sharks into maneaters: Baiting leads to rise in Great White attacks

By Andrew MaloneLast updated at 12:30 AM on 15th January 2010

Fiddling with his swimming goggles as he strolled across one of Cape Town's most popular beaches, Lloyd Skinner did not notice anything amiss.

With temperatures in the 90s, the sand was packed with families enjoying the delights of the South African summer.

The sea appeared calm - perfect to escape the heat. But as he waded out, something terrible started to happen. A strange ripple effect circled him in the water. On the beach, people started waving their towels and shouting at him desperately.

Great White sharks are known as apex predators of the sea

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Great White sharks are known as apex predators of the sea

It was too late. A great white shark struck 37-year-old Skinner with devastating force. The world's deadliest coldblooded predator then turned and, amid thrashing water, pulled its human prey under the waves.

Astonishingly, all was not lost. An endurance runner and fitness fanatic, Skinner somehow managed to struggle to the surface as the sea turned red around him.

He disappeared again moments later. The shark simply circled and struck again, knocking the man into the air before pulling him under once more. He has not been seen since.

This was no ordinary shark attack. The beast was simply enormous - indeed, one eye witness described the animal as being the size of a 'dinosaur or bus'. And chillingly, some experts believe the deadly predator, hungry for meat, could have been tempted to shore by humans themselves. It may be that it is we, not the Great White, who are at fault for this horrific attack.

Despite lifeguards' best efforts, Mr Skinner was doomed. With Cape Town's beaches packed because of a heatwave, lifeguards raced into the water. 'I was shouting "Shark! Shark!'' ' one said last night. 'These bathers were about 15 metres away and could not see what was happening. Then it was over. There was this pool of blood in the water.'

Using its unique ability to detect the tiny electrical pulse emitted by a human heart, this fearsome creature - estimated to weigh more than five tonnes - had attacked the tourist, striking from beneath at up to 25mph.

Watching from his holiday home overlooking the beach, Gregg Coppen was horrified. 'Holy s***! We just saw a gigantic shark eat what looked like a person in front of our house! That shark was huge! Like dinosaur huge!'

He added: 'It was this giant shadow. . . it sort of came out of the water and took this colourful lump and went off with it. You could see its whole jaw wrap around the thing - which turned out to be a person.'

Renting shark cages to tourists has led to Great Whites getting increasingly used to human interaction

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Renting shark cages to tourists has led to Great Whites getting increasingly used to human interaction

Horrified British visitors also saw the carnage unfold at Fish Hoek, a popular tourist resort 30 minutes outside Cape Town, a premier destination for Britons keen to escape freezing temperatures at home.

'We saw the shark come back twice,' said Phyllis McCartain from Arundel in Sussex. 'It had the man's body in its mouth and his arm was in the air. Then the sea was full of blood.'

Denis Lundon, her holiday companion, watched as the swimmer was thrust out of the water by the shark's strike. 'I jumped, waved my hat and roared and screamed at swimmers to get out of the water,' he said. 'I never want to experience this again. I'm going to block it out of my mind.'

Kyle Johnston, another tourist, said: 'We were at about chest depth and he was deeper. We saw people waving towels at us, then we looked further out to sea and saw what looked like blood, and a man's leg come up.'

An engineer from Zimbabwe who ran mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Skinner was on holiday in South Africa to attend the wedding of his partner's daughter, who was on the beach as the horror unfolded.

As the police helicopters scoured the area yesterday, and beaches remained closed, a coastguard-spokesman said: 'Whether we find body parts . . . it's very unlikely. The possibility of the body being completely consumed is being considered. We think the shark took everything.'

By last night, only the tourist's goggles had been recovered. Shark spotters were desperate to locate the Great White responsible. Because sharks are territorial creatures, experts say a beast this size is likely to return again and again to the same spot where prey is known to live.

Ever since the Steven Spielberg film Jaws, this lethal predator has been reviled and feared.

But many believe humans, not the Great White, should be blamed for this horrific death, the latest in a string along South Africa's coastline, which has one of the largest Great White populations in the world.

Indeed, seas around Cape Town teem with these creatures. Despite their fearsome reputation as a so-called apex predator, with only humans higher in nature's hierarchy, Great Whites seldom attack humans. They feed instead on seals, dolphins and large fish such as tuna.

But now the tables are being turned - and humans are being hunted. With no reported attacks for decades, up to three fatal attacks - as well as countless lesser incidents - are now being reported each year.

Many believe this is due to the greedy, irresponsible actions of dozens of tour operators, which have sprung up along a place known locally as 'shark alley', offering tourists the chance to 'swim' with these monsters of the deep.

Shark baiting is believed be behind the surge in Great White attacks

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Shark baiting is believed be behind the surge in Great White attacks

Touting for business at tourist spots such as Cape Town waterfront, they charge tourists £100 a time to be taken out by boat, placed in a cage and lowered into the water, hoping for the Great White shark of Jaws legend to circle.

The methods used to entice the sharks to the paying tourists are being blamed for turning these Great Whites into man-eaters.

Environmentalists and surfers blame these tourist boats for 'chumming': dropping bloody bait, such as meat and rotting fish, into the sea to lure sharks towards the tourists.

Surfers and swimmers say this pungent bait drifts all over the sea, luring sharks dangerously close to the shore. They say chumming is behind the upsurge in lethal attacks.

Craig Bovim, a marine engineer who survived a shark attack, has set up a group to lobby for cage diving to be banned, saying the presence of people in the shark's habitat was creating a familiarity between the two species - with deadly results.

'We should stop this craze,' he says. 'Baiting of leopards and lions is no longer allowed. We should not do it to sharks. They are magnificent animals.'

Adrian Charles, another surfer, said: 'Sharks are intelligent creatures and they learn to associate human beings with food. They follow the boats into the harbour when in the past they wouldn't come all the way in.'

The remarkable proliferation of these sharks around Fish Hoek, where the Atlantic first touches the Indian Ocean on the eastern side of Cape Town known as False Bay, has also brought an influx of wildlife photographers and film crews.

Their methods, according to locals, are also making these sharks associate humans with food. With cameras rolling, many film crews tow dead seals behind their boats in the hope that a Great White will leap out of the water and attack.

Even Peter Benchley - whose book inspired Jaws the movie, sealing the reputation of the killer Great White - now campaigns to save sharks, more than 100 million of which are killed by humans each year for soup and as a by-product of industrial netting.

So big is the threat to their future - and they are a vital part of the ocean's eco-system - that many species, including the Great White, have been designated as endangered.

But with beaches last night still closed amid the Cape Town heatwave, and spotters buzzing the sea in helicopters, some people were already going back into the water.

Incredibly, lifeguards had to chase several people from the sea where this week's fatal attack happened.

So is cage diving to blame for the latest death? Hard to say - but this dreadful attack did, at least, give an insight into the relative intelligence of humans and Great White sharks, regarded by scientists as the number one and number two predators on the planet.

Debra Paine, partner of Lloyd Skinner, the man taken by a great white shark at Fish Hoek earlier this week, had just arrived at the beach to fetch him when she saw the commotion.

Lifeguard Fred Wagenvoorde was in the tower around 3pm on Tuesday.

"I saw the fin about 3m away. I ran down shouting 'shark, shark'."

Wagenvoorde said Paine had come up to him to ask what had happened.

"She had come down to the beach to look for him. I told her there had been a shark attack and she said she was looking for her husband.

"We had his gear - his shorts, shirt, towel, slip-slops and the box from his goggles - which she identified."

Wagenvoorde said Paine had started to shake when she realised the implications.

Paine told Weekend Argus yesterday that she was coping "under the circumstances".

Skinner's family will make a statement at the weekend.

Yesterday Wagenvoorde was back on duty, despite nightmares after seeing the attack.

Meanwhile shark researcher Alison Kock, of the Save our Seas Foundation, said the shark that killed the Zimbabwean was probably hunting a large school of fish nearby. A combination of factors had probably contributed to the attack.

She said Skinner, 37, was at least 100m out - deeper than any of the 12 to 15 bathers in the water at the time - and there was a big school of fish near him at the time.

"The water was also very warm and bait fish love those conditions, so the shark was likely in hunting mode. Great whites follow their prey."

Kock said Skinner was swimming at the time of the attack - not standing as previously reported. After the first strike, the shark made a further five or six passes before moving off towards Kalk Bay.

The City of Cape Town has said the attack on Skinner, an engineer from Harare and a UCT MBA graduate, could not have been avoided.

"All indications are that the shark emerged from deep water, where it was not visible, and attacked the victim within seconds," it said in a statement.

Skinner's parents flew into the city from Zimbabwe soon after the attack.

On Thursday, lifeguards dashed down to Clovelly from Fish Hoek beach to alert a body boarder that a shark was 500m from him, heading for him.

The man had missed hearing three shark alarms.

At Fish Hoek yesterday, few swimmers braved the water.

One, Vincent Fredericks, said he wasn't worried about sharks - but his girlfriend Heidi Ernstzen scanned the water with binoculars from the catwalk while he swam.

Fredericks, from Muizenberg, said he swam at Fish Hoek almost daily.

"If a shark must take me I'd go with him. I even told the car guard if I don't come back he can have my car."

Following the attack, the city has recommended:

Making shark information signs more prominent.

Erecting extra temporary signs when lots of great whites are about.

More emergency training for its shark-spotting staff.

Permanent signs between the Galley Restaurant and Jagger's Walk, indicating that sharks make swimming unsafe.

A memorial service will be held in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Friday to honour the man who was killed by a great white shark at Fish Hoek beach last week.

Lloyd Skinner, 37, was attacked by the shark on Tuesday while swimming in chest-deep water. His body has not been recovered, and the active search was suspended on Thursday.

The attack has prompted the City of Cape Town to suggest that permanent signs be erected at Fish Hoek, warning beach-goers about the risk of shark attacks.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued via the National Search Rescue Institute (NSRI), Skinner's parents, sisters, Diane and Debra Skinner and his partner, Debby Paine, thanked all the people and organisations who were involved in searching for him.

The family, who asked that they not be contacted directly, described the "kindness and support" shown to Paine, who was on the beach when Skinner was attacked, immediately after the incident as "unparallelled".

They paid tribute to the Fish Hoek Lifesavers' Club, the NSRI, police and residents, as well as researchers from the Save Our Seas Shark Centre in St James.

"Lloyd had spent many vacations in Fish Hoek and was very happy following his love of the outdoor pursuits, of road-running, fishing and of course swimming," the Skinner family said.

They described him as a "remarkable and accomplished man in his professional career, his sporting achievements, and in his personal relationships".

"The Fish Hoek community was always hospitable and it was no wonder Lloyd returned time and time again to this town," they said.

Skinner was a Zimbabwean citizen who spent time in Cape Town and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The attack shocked residents, particularly because Skinner had been swimming in waist-deep water not far from the shoreline.

The last fatal shark attack at the beach was in 2004, when Tyna Webb, 77, was killed. Her body was never recovered.

This incident prompted the posting of shark spotters on the mountain slopes.

However, poor visibility last Tuesday made it difficult for spotters to see out into the rough seas.

Immediately after the attack, beaches along the False Bay coastline were closed. Some bathers did not heed this warning and lifeguards and City of Cape Town law enforcement ordered several people out of the water.

In the wake of the attack some residents have suggested more stringent safety measures be taken at the beach.

Black flags were flying at the beach on the day of the attack to indicate poor visibility.

Lifesaving Western Province said the lifeguards who were on duty at the time of Skinner's attack did their best to handle the situation and safeguard other bathers.

Chairman Mark Dotchin said all lifeguards on duty at the time of the attack had received extensive debriefing. One had witnessed the entire attack.

"He saw the whole incident unfolding, from the moment of impact. He reacted immediately, alerting the other lifeguards and warning the bathers.

"That young man hasn't been able to sleep for days. But they are an experienced, mature group of young men and we have assured them that they couldn't have done anything else," said Dotchin.

He said the lifeguard, judging by the amount of blood in the water, instantly knew the attack had been fatal.

"There was no sign of anyone after the attack. The immediate priority was to get everyone out of the water."

The attack happened just a day after the City of Cape Town issued warnings about increased shark activity along the False Bay coastline between Sunrise and Fish Hoek beaches.Such activity is not unusual for that area at this time of year.

Greg Oelofse, who heads the city's environmental policy unit, said there were permanent signs at Fish Hoek beach explaining the flag system.

These also carried shark warnings.

But Oelofse said these could have been more prominent.

A list of recommendations released late last week by the City of Cape Town included making shark information signs more prominent, erecting extra temporary signs when lots of great whites were about, and providing more emergency training for its shark-spotting staff.

The city has also advocated erecting permanent signs between the Galley Restaurant and Jagger's Walk, indicating that sharks made swimming there unsafe.

The city said in its statement that the attack on Skinner could not have been prevented.